


Like an Island needs the Sea

by neerapen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandonment, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fear, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Guilt, Hurt Keith (Voltron), If You Squint - Freeform, Loneliness, M/M, POV Keith (Voltron), Panic Attacks, Pining Keith (Voltron), Season/Series 03, supportive lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 08:11:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11801997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neerapen/pseuds/neerapen
Summary: What if he loses him too?or: Keith fears arise and there's only one way to tame them.





	Like an Island needs the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Set before they get Shiro back, since it's hinted that it took some time before that. 
> 
> Hoenstly, after S3 all I can think of is Keith being insecure, Keith needing Lance and Lance supporting Keith. Give Keith happiness, VLD writers, _I beg you._  
>  This fic is mostly gen but still, pining Keith is growing on me, like _a lot_.

There's nothing like that sensation.

Feeling his touch, different from all the others, different because Keith made it so, different because it was gained after endless discussions.

Seeing his smiles, slowly learning how to understand them, like a language on their own, each one with a different meaning.

But it's not enough.

Not enough to get rid of the thing gnawing his insides and refusing everything that is happening. Not enough to make him accept a reality where one anchor of his life is gone. The fear is too strong, the rage too intense. The hopelessness drowns him and doesn't let him survive.

What if he loses him too? What if Lotor decides to attack Voltron by kidnapping one of its pilots? It'd be smart. It'd be Lotor's style. Losing the Green or the Yellow pilot would cripple them. Losing Blue's could force Black to take a new pilot once again, at least as long as it'll take for them to get Allura back. But the same could be said about Red's pilot. If Lotor takes Lance, the team would still work, probably, somehow, but what about Keith? Keith would be lost all over again, once more without an anchor.

Who would watch Keith's back? Who would help him think before he can act on his own? Allura? Hunk? Coran? They are all too kind. Like Shiro. Pidge would, probably, maybe, but she sees him like a loner. She doesn't see him like someone she needs to challenge, not like Lance does.

Lance, who supports him. Lance, who trusts him to guide them. Lance, who used to only criticize him, and is now the first one who can put Keith at ease. Lotor might know that. Lotor might _exploit_ that. Lotor might focus exactly on kidnapping Lance, and that would destroy Keith, destroy Voltron too, and maybe Lotor wouldn't just kidnap Lance, he would torture him like they did to Shiro, make him fight without a weapon, or with just a blade, and Lance is great with guns, amazingly so, but Keith always wanted to teach him more hand to hand combat, except he didn't, and maybe now it's too late, because Lotor knows it and will― _Lance_ will―

Keith needs to see him.

He needs to make sure Lance is all right.

He stands up from his bed, leaving his shoes and his dagger where they are, and he gets out of his room, walking those three steps that separate him from Lance's quarters. He knocks, he blinks, he can't see properly. The door is fading, his hand is fading, his ears are ringing, louder and louder.

"Keith?"

Keith breathes in but it's difficult. Lance is here. Is Lance here? He can almost hear him, but he can't see him. And what if he's hallucinating? What if he's just dreaming? Where is Lance then? _Where is Lance?_

"Where are you?!" he feels himself saying, high pitched, breathless, lost in a sea of nothing and everything and fears and _what ifs_ that are trying to eat him up whole.

"Here." He hears over the noise. He feels hands holding his hands, but it could be fake, could be someone else, but the voice, _the voice_ is―

"Keith, I'm here. I'm here." Hands pull him in and his fingers are now touching something. Features. Cheeks. A nose. Keith can't see but he can touch and he does so, he touches these details and he tries to follow the voice telling him to breathe, because it's Lance's, isn't it? He knows Lance's face. Lance has that pointed nose and those thin lips and his hair are soft, like he used lots of products on them, and Keith knows that Lance does so, somehow finding all is necessary to always look flawless even when they are at war. Lance's skin _must_ be smooth too, and _it is_ under his digits, like a polished blade or the silkiest fabric.

"I'm here. It's me. Lancey Lance. Breathe, Keith. You're having a panic attack. Just breathe with me. In." Keith obeys, takes a deep, ragged breath. "Out."

"Lance―"

"In, Keith, again. Out."

" _Lance_!"

"I'm _here_ , Keith."

Keith feels everything crumble around him, but he follows Lance's instructions, focus on his voice, calls him to hear it more, and Lance guides him, he guides him out of that fog and those thoughts, and lets Keith touch his face, because Lance _has him_. Lance is safe. Lance is okay. Lance is _with him_.

"Yeah, I am." Gentle, so gentle. Keith's heart is crying. Crying for help, crying for Lance. "I'm here Keith, come back here. Please."

"What if they take you too?" Keith's voice is weak like he feels. Weak like his heart, weak like he's always been, hiding from others, hiding from people abandoning him, leaving him alone in an empty house with no warmth and no love for a kid without parents and without friends.

"They won't."  


"But _what if_?"

Lance's hands are on Keith's face, raising his head, caressing his cheeks with his thumbs, and Keith can see piercing eyes calling him back from his terror: "I'll come back to you all. Whatever it takes, I'll come back to you, Keith."

He'll come back.

"Yes, Keith. Whatever it takes."

Keith cries, cries and hold Lance's wrists in his hands, just to make sure. "Whatever it takes?"

"Whatever it takes."


End file.
